Moving groups of articles by shifting them in a horizontal direction to a defined position by means of pusher bars or other suitable transfer means, or by movable support surfaces, involves a certain risk of the articles being dislodged in relation to each other within the group according to the speed of the shifting motion, in particular on reaching the end position. Under unfavorable conditions, in particular under rapid deceleration at the end of a transfer movement, individual articles may even topple over. In general, the risk of toppling over or becoming dislodged is greatest for the articles positioned foremost in transfer direction, and should this occur, disruption of the original pattern of the article layers and the desired arrangement would be the result. This is a limiting factor for the actual transfer speeds. Before reaching the desired end position it is particularly necessary to moderately reduce the speed in order to prevent a sudden deceleration and the ensuing risk of disruption of the layer pattern. A frame can be used to enclose and support the articles while being transferred, which will, however, result in other conveying or handling elements, such as lifting mechanisms, to be delayed until the frame is retracted out of the way. Simply placing the articles in a form-locking arrangement for transfer therefore will not lead to the benefit of increasing the overall performance of the palletizer or the like.
Patent DE 603 07 332 T2 discloses a device for transporting and boxing a group of objects that are held in a predefined position by means of a fixture device so that the objects remain arranged in a group while being conveyed. The aim is, in particular, to prevent the objects from falling over while being conveyed and transferred to a further packaging unit.
A method for forming, holding, separating, and transporting stacks downstream from a depositing device is also known from DE 41 17 434 A1. Several stack supports are used for stabilizing the stacks, and for this purpose they each follow the paths of motion of the stacks.
DE 44 35 981 A1 presents equipment for feeding objects to be packaged to a packaging machine. The objects are conveyed along a transport line and transferred into the packaging machine by means of pusher devices.